Monday, March 28, 2011

eBird Utah!

The Idaho birding listserv, IBLE, regularly reports the County Big List #'s mentioning the most recent species seen and what the total is year-to-date. I kind of miss that. I don't know that anyone one in Utah is tracking or publishing that information. Then I realized that eBird has that reporting functionality built in. You can click on the "View and Explore Data" tab and then on "Arrivals and Departures". From there you can filter by country, state, and county and see what the county total is for number of species as well as in what order the birds were reported.

Below are the current rankings of the counties in Utah on eBird. The number represents the number of species reported year-to-date (YTD) as of today.

One of the inherent weaknesses of eBird data and maps is geographic coverage, especially out west where there are millions of acres of uninhabited wilderness. Large centers of populations have more birders and therefore more reports and more species seen. Some Utah counties certainly need an eBird Champion! One person reporting birds from these less-birded counties can make a huge difference. Perhaps when you are planning a birding outing in Utah, you might want to pick one of these counties and give it a little bit of eBird love!

@Kent & Wendy - I am actually thinking about a new blogging segment combining family history and birding, by visiting the places my ancestors lived, like Wayne County, doing some family history research, cemetery visits, treading where their feet have trod, and seeing the birds they may or may not have noticed when they lived there once upon a time.

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